Countries that would get involved in a Taiwan-China conflict should take steps to counter Beijing’s propaganda which says that China would not be defeated, a US military official wrote in a research paper.
Chinese propaganda on social media, along with the expansion of its military, is intended to convey the message to countries friendly to Taiwan that they could not defeat China in a conflict, and therefore should not become involved, US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Brian Kerg wrote.
Kerg, who wrote the paper for the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security where he is a research fellow, said that China observers should see Beijing’s “Joint Sword-2024A” military exercises held last month from that perspective.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
China would have policymakers in the US and elsewhere believe that resistance to a Chinese occupation of Taiwan would be futile, and therefore they should seek to encourage Taiwan to accept “peaceful unification,” he said.
Analysis of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army shows that although China is a military threat, it is not as big of a threat as Beijing would have people believe through its propaganda, he said.
However, if Beijing influence campaigns helps to reinforce beliefs about its power, then China would achieve its aims without the need to engage in military conflict, he said.
To prevent that from happening, policymakers and analysts should understand the nature and depth of Beijing’s influence campaign, and be aware of its relative vulnerability in the event of an attempted invasion of Taiwan, he said.
Policymakers should also work to dispel misconceptions about the strength of China’s military power, he said.
Although Beijing likely has the air and sea capabilities to blockade Taiwan, maintaining the blockade might also be strategically detrimental to Beijing and would damage China’s economy, he said, adding that a complete and long-term blockade would put great pressure on China’s military.
An amphibious assault on Taiwan would be larger in scale and more complex than the Normandy landings during World War II, and would require joint planning and coordination on a level that the various branches of the People’s Liberation Army lack the capability for, he said.
Countering China’s narrative must be pre-emptive, and policymakers must emphasize China’s vulnerabilities, so as to strengthen public support for assisting Taiwan’s defense, he said.
The resilience of US alliances and partnerships against Chinese aggression must be demonstrated, as well as the efforts to improve the effectiveness of Taiwan’s overall defense, he added.
The Taiwanese government should also make efforts to protect its public from the influence of disinformation, for example by teaching media literacy skills in schools, he said.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS